Cicada

[DK27]

Heard a thump on our air conditioner in the living room and was like "wtf" and found this little guy...



Never really saw one up close just hanging out like htat before alive. Made me think of those robots from The Matrix

[JohnnyO]

Yeah, cicada. Ugly suckers but they don't bite or hurt you. Back around 1969 or 70 we had an explosion of them here, sweeping them up in big piles in the streets. Birds love 'em and think they're good eatin'.

[Will]

They are pretty much unchanged from dinosaur days I think. I live out in the woods and when they come out on their 7 year cycle it's deafening outside. Some are on other cycles and you see them pretty much every year in small numbers, but the big coming out is pretty annoying.

The weird thing is when you catch them in their subterranian form. They are hideous little things. Their cycle is like this--they come out from deep underground where they have been eating tree roots and being mole food; climb a tree to about 3'; crawl out of their shell; unfurl their wings; fly like a zombie bug smashing into things until they get high up in the trees; raise hell to attract female bugs; copulate; then they make a slit in a branch and dump in their eggs. They they die and stink up the place. The eggs hatch, and the branch falls to the ground--thousands of branches come down all over. Then the new little nasty buglets burrow undreground and don't come out for another 7 years.

[JohnnyO]

We have two kinds here, the 7 year and the 17 year. A few years ago in a cicada year I was playing in a golf tournament and they left brooms on all the greens because you'd have to sweep a path to putt.

[Jim Oaks]

I hate those things!

They came out of the ground a few years ago and were everywhere! I tried cutting the grass and they were flying in to me, landing on me, etc. They make a lot of noise. It's weird in your in an area of trees that they're all over because of the noise. You could hear them in the car going down the highway with the windows up. They'll shed that skin/shell whatever and you'll find them stuck to the sides of trees with the cicada gone from inside it.

[CopyKat]

Do those make like a Buzzing sound during the day? They hang out in trees and bushes?

[firefighter525]

Originally Posted by CopyKat

Do those make like a Buzzing sound during the day? They hang out in trees and bushes?

thats what I've always been told. they make that (*mimics sound*) wee ahh weeee ahhh weeeeeeeee sound.

Maybe someone here will know for sure

[DK27]

Yeah, I believe they hang out in trees and make noise. This is about the third one I've seen where I'm living now (one had left it's shell on my steps and looked like it died right away). They seem pretty dumb/annoying as this one ran into the window about 30 times over and over again. It got old pretty fast and they really seem to be able to move and make a thump!

[MAKG]

Big insects are part of living in the forest. Honestly, a bunch of 1-2 inch bugs wouldn't faze me much, even in large numbers.

It's the 7 inch beetles that freak me (and my cats) out. And the 5 inch "WTFs" that look something like really, really big red and green ants.

I live in an odd habitat -- very sandy dry soil in a moist coastal region, with high elevation plants (mainly ponderosa pine) at low elevation. So, some of these insects are endangered. Not that you would really want to mush a 7 inch beetle. At least not without a power washer (and I'd guess a noseplug) handy....

[85_Ranger4x4]

Originally Posted by MAKG

Big insects are part of living in the forest. Honestly, a bunch of 1-2 inch bugs wouldn't faze me much, even in large numbers.

It's the 7 inch beetles that freak me (and my cats) out. And the 5 inch "WTFs" that look something like really, really big red and green ants.

I live in an odd habitat -- very sandy dry soil in a moist coastal region, with high elevation plants (mainly ponderosa pine) at low elevation. So, some of these insects are endangered. Not that you would really want to mush a 7 inch beetle. At least not without a power washer (and I'd guess a noseplug) handy....

It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't sit in the trees and scream day and night however, I am looking forward to the first frost to get rid of these stupid things. That said I am glad we don't have those beetles to mess with just Cicada's, grasshoppers and skeeters, and 2/3's of them are just an annoyance, some of the mosquitos however carry some pretty bad bugs themselves (West Nile Virus and others)

[ZMan]

Originally Posted by 85_Ranger4x4

It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't sit in the trees and scream day and night however, I am looking forward to the first frost to get rid of these stupid things. That said I am glad we don't have those beetles to mess with just Cicada's, grasshoppers and skeeters, and 2/3's of them are just an annoyance, some of the mosquitos however carry some pretty bad bugs themselves (West Nile Virus and others)

ugh I can't work in my shop past 8:30 with the doors open because of the dang mosquitoes, I should get the smoker out more often.

We had a bad Japanese beetle problem 6 or 7 years ago, bought the traps and we were catching 2-3 pounds of them over a weeks time, now I barely see any of them.

[Bill]

Originally Posted by MAKG

I live in an odd habitat -- very sandy dry soil in a moist coastal region, with high elevation plants (mainly ponderosa pine) at low elevation. So, some of these insects are endangered.

Ponderosa Pine is a low elevation pine. They grow all the way down to, and into the Sacramento Valley in some places. The big difference between here and the outer coastal ranges is it is a lot colder at night here than it is along the hillsides near the water. So, you only see them growing on hilltops high enough where the marine influence doesn't keep the winter nights balmy, or in sheltered valleys where cold air settles in at night and allows enough chilling hours to set fruit, and stratify the seeds so they can germinate. Very much like the requirements for many stone fruits. Pine seedlings also do much better in coarse soil than clay.

The other plants probably have similar requirements, or are a different species of a genus you have seen at higher elevations.

BTW, some silviculturalists want the Ponderosa Pines in the Santa Cruz Mts to be classified as a subspecies Pinus pondersa benthamiana, citing genetic isolation and a few unique traits. The USDA's counterclaim is that this group wants to get it on a protected list to prevent any future reopening of an abandoned sand pit near Felton.